II GEECT Leadership Symposium - RITCS, Brussels, Belgium (26 May 2023)
Date – 26th May 2023
Venue – RITCS, Brussels, belgium
Film schools have a long tradition in Europe tied to educational models of the conservatoires, which are, for the most part, still distinct from the wider academia. The focus on the elements of craft and art making results in an orientation that was, and still continues to be, practical, placing the master/disciple relationship at the heart of the educational process. In the last decades, these institutions have been under a great deal of pressure. The reforms of the Bologna process had far-reaching ramifications for these institutions by replacing some training regimes of flexible length with ones that could accommodate the ordered cycle of degrees proposed by the reform. Further faced with the need for European Standards compliance, namely those articulated in the “Dublin descriptors” of 2004 and more recently in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), many of these institutions started transforming themselves by engaging in a process of “academicisation”. This resulted in great tension between the original nature and focus of these institutions on professional-level training and the much wider mission to which academic institutions are nowadays ascribed. The result was that many film schools went through a period of turmoil that has greatly hindered their ability to build alliances or experiment with structural changes. Throughout this period, these institutions and many other programmes that have emerged inside universities based on similar educational models, have continued to pursue progressive pedagogical approaches supported by their special heritage, their pragmatic response to individual working methods, and their close connections to students and their work. Yet, many impediments to these HEI activities remain, like legal or institutional constraints that disallow the introduction of the subject as a self-sufficient element of a doctoral degree, or concerns over financial viability due to the costly nature of teaching, resulting in pressure for greater massification and a decrease in the intensive use of expensive state-of-the-art technologies. With the Brussels Leadership symposium, GEECT wishes to be at the forefront of the discussion on future and engaging forms of cooperation between schools. The symposium will include three areas of focus that will at the centre of three round tables to be held during the one-day event:
- Associations of HEI: benchmarks with associations in other sectors – how do they operate? Benefits to members?
- Pedagogical cooperation: what new challenges? I.e. Ai in higher education
- EU instruments for cooperation: the ETGT and the European Universities
The board provides a concept note on each topic and groups are organized to report on each topic
The objective is to produce a position paper on this topic to be taken to the Rome congress
